Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Who is the Cunnamulla Fella?

Stan Coster was ‘ringing’
(working as a sheep-shearing “ringer”) around Cunnamulla in the 1950’s when he
wrote the words of the ‘Cunnamulla Fella’. Slim Dusty later recorded the
words as a song.

So who is he? Well
locals in Cunnamulla say he is the larrikin in all Australian’s. When Stan was
in the region working on stations during the 1950’s and 1960’s Cunnamulla was
enjoying steady prosperity due to high wool prices and increased demand for the
fine merino clip produced from the Mulga country. It was the days, they claimed,
when Australia was riding on the sheep’s back. Wool was fetching a pound for a
pound and cattle were worth their weight in gold.

Friday and
Saturday nights saw the young ringers and shearers hit Cunnamulla for a weekend
of ‘drinkin, lovin and fightin’. After a week of working hard – 15 or 16 hour
days were not unheard of - they also played hard.

Mike Nicholas, an
artist, was based in Cunnamulla as a policeman in the 1960’s and these young
men inspired his drawing of the ‘Cunnamulla Fella’. A young man with pannikin
in one hand, sitting on his rolled up swag having a yarn at the end of the day.
He later recalled seeing boys as young as 14 sitting on their swag waiting for
the grazier or mail truck to pick them up for another jaunt on one of the huge
stations.

Since then the
character The Cunnamulla Fella has grown into the legend it is today. So when
you next venture west into the mulga country with its orange tinted soils and
friendly outback folk check out the huge bronze statue sculptured by Archie St.
Claire. He sits on the green lawn in front of the Paroo Shire Council gazing
down the main street.

There may not be as many ringers, shearers or even pubs
for that matter that once overflowed with these men cashing in the weekly
cheques as back when Stan was amongst them but one thing is for sure, there are
still the larrikins, the yarns and the colourful characters out there.